


Mass Effect Garrus Chunks

by Crilbyte



Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: F/M, Unfinished, chunk - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-20
Updated: 2018-07-20
Packaged: 2019-06-13 14:33:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,730
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15366735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crilbyte/pseuds/Crilbyte
Summary: The original story that gave me my Dragon Age Inquisition idea.A girl who played the Mass Effect series is sucked into the game only to find that Sheppard was there as well and that her hopes of Romancing Garrus herself is going to be a little harder than she'd hoped.This is chunks from the story as I never actually finished it (or officially started) but I was asked to post them anyway. So Enjoy!





	1. Chunk I

Willow stirred the icing quickly in the bowl, making sure that it was whipped up nicely; it needed to have lots of air in it, to be light. Smiling to herself she lifted the spoon almost to her mouth before dropping it quickly back in the bowl.

That was a close one, she thought to herself. I almost just doomed myself to an Omega hospital for the next two weeks. She went back to beating the blue goo. Dextro-amino acid based food was something she did not need to ingest today.

She couldn’t believe that Garrus had never had devil’s food cake or any of its variations, it was her favourite. He had played it off saying, “How often do you hear of classic human foods being made so we can eat it? Not many humans care enough about Turians to even want to try to, and no Turians seem to want to eat human food either. The animosity is too high. Besides, I’m not much of a sweets person.”

She looked at the timer on the oven seconds before it went off. “Yes!” She pulled the cake out and turned the tin over, slowly letting it fall onto a plate where she started smearing the icing over it. Once it was sufficiently covered she took a plastic bag and poured the excess icing into it, added more blue dye, for a significant colour difference, and cut the corner before beginning to write on the cake. She knew devil’s food cake wasn’t supposed to have blue icing, but the occasion deemed it appropriate.

All in all, it was a dumb excuse he’d given her. She knew Garrus well enough to know that he just didn’t want her to be bothered that he hadn’t had it, he liked sweets. She saw how he eyeballed the Turian chocolate in the store a few months back. And besides, she didn’t feel bothered at all. She was excited. It was a time to celebrate. Tomorrow was a very important day, all those years ago.

There came a sound from the other room and Willow almost dropped the plastic bag turned writing tool.

“I’m home.” The familiar voice rang through the room like a cello, his low c voice that made her shiver.

She sat it on the counter before shouting back to him. “Just a second! Don’t come in here ok? There’s a surprise!” she grabbed a towel and turned around.

“Whatever,” he replied and she heard a thump as he fell onto the couch.

Uh-oh, he’s upset. I wonder why? She asked herself before asking him, “Is something wrong?”

He didn’t answer for a moment, the silence was painful. After the gap, he finally said, “I’m going back out in just a few moments.”

The towel flipped around as she wiped the icing off her hands, walking towards the living room. “Back out? Where?”

“Another piece of intel came in, about whoever has been selling off information about me. I’m going to go check it out.”

Willow stopped drying her hands and stood still, “But you were already gone for days on the last mission. This is the first time I've gotten to see you in forever. Stay, just for tonight. I have a surprise for you later.” A half hopeful smile grew on her face but slowly faded as she saw his face not change. He looked sad.

He sighed and placed his hands on his knees and stood up.

“Garrus,” Willow took a step towards him and he held his hand out to stop her.

“I’ll be back soon.”

“Soon? How soon is soon?” she asked raising her voice, “Last time, soon meant I had to sit here worrying for almost a week and a half, no calls, no messages, nothing.”

After a gap of silence, she continued on, “I’m making you a surprise, it’s literally almost done. I did the math between the orbits of Earth and Palaven, the ratio is 1:1.2, I figured everything out. If you can wait just a few minutes,” she looked back at the kitchen as Garrus cut her off.

“It’s really better if I just go, I wanted to stop by and tell you I was ok and what was going on. If you need anything ask Uril. He’s indebted to me; he’ll help you with anything you need, food on the table, protection. I’ll message you when I get a chance.”

“Garrus, is something the matter, you seem more upset than usual. Doesn’t finishing missions make you happy? Excited?”

“It’s different. The timing is poor.”

“Poor timing?” she asked.

“Don’t you ever look at a calendar? Don’t you know what yesterday was?” he replied, not making eye contact.

Without another word he walked to the door and left.

Willow stood there a moment before walking back into the kitchen and staring at the cake, half written on. The now meaningless message.

“Happy 27th/23rd Birthd-”

She grabbed up the writing tool, starting to finish the words, but before any icing could even come out of the tube she squeezed it hard, squirting it all over the counter. A shrill scream escaped her lips before she threw the tool against the wall and raised her hand to do the same with the cake, but her anger was short-lived, balling her hand into a fist and letting it drop to her side, tears flowing down her cheeks. She turned around, leaning up against the counter and sliding down to sit on the floor. She cried over everything, how it had all changed.

She didn’t need to look at a calendar, Willow knew what yesterday was. It was the second anniversary of the Normandy’s crash; the anniversary of Shepard’s death. It didn’t matter how loving she was to Garrus, he still loved her. Even though he didn’t even know it himself yet, she knew he loved her still. She had hoped for so long that she could change his mind about her, make him love her, Willow, the real Shepard; the Shepard behind the Shepard.

It hadn’t worked. She’d been the most loving girl possible. She was basically his wife. People thought they were married all the time on Omega, asked how long they’d been together and they always both bumbled around, embarrassingly explaining how they were only colleagues, roommates, squadmates, whichever was deemed appropriate at the time. She never added how she’d wished they were more.

He was still thinking about Shepard, even now. It was two years now that they’d been living together with no change. She was starting to lose hope. It was destiny, how the game went. She was never able to change any of it.

Two years.

Willow’s head shot up. Shepard was dead for just over two years while they worked on the Lazarus Project. She hadn’t let the slow pace of her progress bother her because she knew she had so much time. But those two years were gone now, she had a month, maybe, before Archangel would go rogue and Shepard would make her reappearance soon after. Willow’d gone after him first. She’d had more information than Shepard did. She’d meta-gamed. She had gone after Archangel the first chance she could, wanted to get Garrus by her side as fast as possible, but Shepard had no idea, being just a character, it was just by chance for her. It had meant something far more to Willow. It still did, only now it meant something different, less time. She had less time.

Willow pulled her knees to her chest and cried a little more. She knew it would accomplish nothing but it made her feel better. Garrus was doing what needed to be done, she couldn’t hate him for that, and they needed food. She would just have to deal, for now, take it in stride.

She really didn’t want to call Vallok but Willow had spent the last of her credits on the ingredients for a Turian cake, and Garrus hadn’t brought home any credits to pay for food while he was gone on this next mission, or had forgotten to leave any at least. She really didn’t want to call Vallok, she didn’t trust him.

Vallok Uril was the friend of a friend of Garrus’s. Willow didn’t like him from the moment she met him. He was one of the Turians who still had animosity towards humans. He took it to a new level, being passive aggressive and talking down on them, but she remembered overhearing conversations about how he only had relations with human women because Turian women were too violent and he liked how much more dominant he could be over the squishy, human girls. How frail they were. She had even overheard him once saying that he liked to bite the women he slept with on the neck, scarring them. Forever marked like some sort of conquest. She wasn’t a Turian psychologist, but that sounded like a human sociopath if she’d ever heard one.

And above all of that, she didn’t know him. She had begun to take for granted events that were going to happen to her and the team just because she always knew. She knew who they were going to meet, when they would be attacked, anything important. But she didn’t know this Turian. He was never mentioned. She had noticed little changes in the story, compensation for her meddling. Little changes that made the story happen the same way even though she knew the answers before the questions were given. She was worried that was what Vallok was, a fix for some hole she created when she arrived here. She had become accustomed to knowing and did not like being in the dark again.

Her stomach grumbled and she decided it was time to suck up her pride and just call him. She walked up to the wall touch screen and tapped out a few commands before it started ringing. To her surprise, it only got through half a ring before she could hear muffled voices.

“So you sent him on the dummy mission?” she heard Uril’s voice clearly through the intercom.

“Yes, he should be gone soon enough.” This second voice Willow knew, but she didn’t know from where. It was definitely another Turian, she could tell from the flanging effect in his voice, she didn’t know for sure who it was, but she could guess. Sidonis.

“Good, and the rest of the team, they’re all on the other dummy mission?” Uril asked.

“Yes, as soon as they are all grouped I’ll go talk to the blue suns.”

“And you’ll tell them what they need to know?”

“Of course. And then you’ll make sure it all works out?”

“Of course, if nothing I am a man of my word. Just make sure none of this gets ou-” Then the call dropped.

Willow stood in awe. This information was crucial. Vallok was a betrayer. He and someone else in the group, and from the information she had that no one else did, she was assuming it was indeed Sidonis, had obviously teamed up, and he had convinced him to betray Garrus. And she was the only one who knew now.

Willow snapped out of it and quickly tried to message Garrus, halfway through the message she realized that he was probably not going to get this right away and that if anyone else got it the last thing she needed to do was give away information she didn’t even really know was true. So she made it simple.

 

Archangel,  
I’ve gotten word that Vallok Uril may be the one we’ve been looking for, the intel I just got supports it 100%. Please call me as soon as you get this. It’s really important. Till then, I’m going to go on a little recon work myself. See if I can get any more information.  
I love you.

 

After staring at the last line for much longer than she had originally planned, she erased it and sent the message. Now she had to go and talk to Uril. If he really was going to betray Garrus, she’d make sure it was the last thing he ever did.

. . .

Willow took a deep breath before pushing the little touch screen doorbell that Vallok had installed after their last big raid. He’d earned enough money to be able to upgrade his apartment. Everyone knew, he bragged about it relentlessly. She was so annoyed when she heard, how is it that Garrus had to struggle just to make sure they had food to eat and this guy’s tech-ing up his apartment?

Once the bell rang her courage began to falter. The Turian race was known for their strength and cunning. She was just a regular human. Sure, she could shoot a gun, and she’d brought her pistol with her just in case, but she wasn’t a soldier by any means. If this went poorly, it may not go well for her.

The door hissed as the airtight seal broke and slid open.

“Uril,” Willow said as soon as she could see him.

“Oh, Willow. What a pleasant surprise. I wasn’t expecting you,” he replied playfully.

“Just call me Abram,” she said, using the fake last name she’d come up with.

“Oh, last name basis huh. Well, you can call me Vallok if you’d like. I wouldn’t mind. Anyway, why don’t you come inside?”

“I know it’s you. I know you’re the one who’s selling his information.” Willow said boldly, her false courage becoming truer than it had been a minute ago.

Vallok was silent for a moment before he put on a Turian grin. “Why don’t we go inside and talk this over.” It was obviously not a request.

Even if it was she wouldn’t have refused.

Willow walked inside and looked around. The room was small, unlike Garrus’s and her apartment which had a kitchen, a bedroom, and a living area, this room was just that. A room. One wall had a counter, sink, fridge, and an oven; the other had a bed slid up against it. There were some nick-knacks here and there, but it was hardly bigger than a normal bedroom. She had no idea he was living in an econ apartment.

“Your apartment is small,” she said without thinking.

“Not really, it’s the average size for someone who lives alone. Does yours have extra space for two beds? Archangel makes it very clear that you are not a couple, so I assume you do not share a bed.”

Willow cringed at the question and Vallok caught it. “Ah, so it’s against your wishes then. Interesting.” he added, “Does he have another woman in his life? Is she Turian, or is she also a human. He does seem to hold no ill will toward your race.”

“No. It’s not like that. Our apartment only has one bed, and after a very long argument Archangel decided I was to sleep in the bedroom and he was to sleep in the living room on the couch.”

“Living room? Bedroom? Are you living in a condo apartment?” he asked, honestly curious.

“Yes. We have a living room, bathroom, kitchen, and bedroom. Is that strange?”

“It is if you don’t have the funds to pay for it like us mercenaries usually don’t. He must be paying a fortune for your comfort. Perhaps he cares for you more than he lets off.”

“More than he…” Willow blushed and looked down at the floor.

“And obviously you do too.” Vallok walked up to her and placed his hand on her shoulder. “It’s ok, I’m sure he’ll come around.”

She looked up at him, now having completely forgotten why she had come in the first place, “Really? Why?”

“Because he’s threatened us not to let you get hurt before. He obviously cares about you. And when he finds you, he will let his true nature come out, and he will realize just how important you were, and how vulnerable he really is. He will be alone and he will be defenseless. And it’s all thanks to you, my dear.” Vallok smiled a terrifying smile that only a Turian could accomplish.

“Were? Alone?” she asked, her voice quivering, “When he finds me? What do you mean?”

“Your body, my dear. When he finds your body.”

He didn’t give her the chance to react. His taloned hands were around her throat in seconds. It caught her off guard, but not too much so. She’d been in combat before. Instinctively she grabbed for the gun holstered to her hip and pressed it to his right shoulder. Without a second thought, she pulled the trigger. Garrus would be proud.

Vallok screeched and dropped her onto the ground. Scurrying towards the door, she could hear the furious Turian behind her, flailing about.

“Oh no you don’t!” he shouted, gripping her ankle and dragging her back. She screamed, grasping for any purchase she could find. But there was none, the slick floor made it all too easy for Vallok to drag her back to him.

Once she was closer he reached out with his other hand and grabbed her calf, “You shot me!” He gripped higher up her leg with his other hand, pulling her closer, “You little bitch, you shot me!” his hands clawed their ways up to her thighs and then to her hips, “I had underestimated you, but I won’t again,” his voice becoming like an animals. He gripped her arms tightly and stood, bringing her up with him. Willow yelled out in pain as he gripped her harshly. “You’ll regret that,” he snarled, grabbing her wrist and swinging her into a table before pulling her back and swinging her into the wall.

Willow screamed out, tears building up in her eyes, but she fought them. She would not cry out to this man.

“You will beg me for mercy.” Vallok pulled her close to him, pressed her to his chest, his hands on her forearms. “You will regret what you did, originally, I was just going to kill you, now I'm going to make you suffer first,” he hissed before throwing her across the room again. She hit the edge of the bed and fell back on to it, her head hitting the wall behind. Vallok walked towards the bed, crawled onto it after her, on his knees, and approached her. “Archangel will be here soon, right? I assume you told him you were coming here. You heard the conversation over my com system right?”

Willow pressed herself to the wall, fighting the whimpers in her throat. Her voice came out, but only just, “You knew I was listening?”

“Did you think it was an accident? Of course I did. So you could tell him. You did tell him you were coming here right?” he smiled.

Willow laughed and smiled back, a sudden burst of confidence mixed with insanity. “No. Actually, I didn’t. I told him I was going out on recon.” Her grin grew. If she was going to die here at least she wouldn’t be bait.

“Oh really?” he grabbed her wrist and pulled it to him, pushing in a message on her wrist communicator.

“What are you doing!?” she screamed, pulling at his grip to no avail.

“Making sure my plan works perfectly. Here you go,” he let her go and she looked at her com unit. He’d already sent the message, she couldn’t read it.

“Now everything is perfect, minus my shoulder, but I only just underestimated you before. And as I said, I will not make that mistake again. This is the end.” He growled and leapt at her.

Before Willow could scream his hands were around her neck again. She scraped at his wrists, the tough armour of his skin cutting at her fingers and palms, but she did not feel it. Her eyes rolled back in her head and closed as she felt him crushing her esophagus. It hurt so much; much more than anything she’d ever experienced. She could feel her consciousness slipping away. In her last moments before the black, she remembered the other pistol she hid in her billowing Omega dress she wore. Letting go of his wrist with one hand she reached down and gripped it in her hand. He had underestimated her again, and he was right, he wouldn’t have the chance to again.

. . .

The minute Garrus got her message he raced back home. Going out on recon? Was she mad? She was so frail, so small; she was going to get herself killed! He had refused to train her in hand to hand combat for a reason! He had to get home and stop her.

When he got to their apartment he typed in the keycode as fast as he could and burst through the door the moment it was open. “Willow!” he screamed. He ran from room to room, ending up in the kitchen. There was icing piled on the floor and the wall was dyed blue from what hadn’t completely slid down. On the counter was a cake. He walked over and looked at it, read it. He closed his eyes and stood very still for a moment. He took a deep breath, attempt to calm himself, it didn’t work. His fist slammed down on the counter, smashing the cake and sending bits of it flying everywhere. It made a loud bang and then silence.

Suddenly his comm unit beeped a message alert. He gasped and looked at it immediately, his fingers tangling together and making it difficult to press the correct buttons, but he managed finally to and read the message.

 

I went to confront Vallok. It was a mistake. I’m sorry.

I love you.

 

Garrus stood silent for a moment, unable to really comprehend what he’d just read. His mind was blank, until it wasn’t.

And then it was full. Full of all the signs he’d missed. She took care of him, she cared for him, she was always there for him, she was risking her life right now for him.

She was risking her life.

Vallok. If he even touches a hair on her head, he swore. A snarl escaped his birdlike mouth before he stormed out of the room, leaving their front door wide open. He ran full speed down to the Varron district where Vallok lived, shoving pedestrians out of his way as he went, running into people and knocking them over.

He barely looked at the numbers indicating which apartment was which, Vallok’s was close, a right turn and then at the end of the hall, last on the left. He didn’t need to look at the numbers. Just as he was turning the last corner he heard an ear-splitting, pained scream, followed by an entire clips worth of ammo in gunshots. Fear flooded Garrus’s system as he came to a halt in front of his door. When he reached it his fist came down on the door hard, it only took one hit. The seal hissed and the door slid open, revealing the bedlam inside.

Every piece of furniture was either overturned or destroyed beyond repair. There was blood, both human and Turian, smeared over every surface, the red and blue turning purple at times. His eyes didn’t know where to look, the horror was everywhere. Then he heard a scream to his right.

Pressed up against the kitchen wall was Vallok, blood streaming from multiple gunshot wounds covering his body. In one hand he held a large knife, Garrus had walked in with just enough time to witness him pull his hand back to throw it. He looked opposite of the wounded Turian to see a determined girl on her knees on the bed, a gun in her hands, arms still outstretched from shooting.

Vallok threw the knife and Garrus leapt into its path. It caught him in the shoulder and he fell.

“Garrus!” he heard Willow scream.

He looked up to see Vallok’s eyes wide, but he regained his calm quickly.

“You’re here a bit sooner than I’d expected. Your girlfriend here came and just attacked me for no good reason. Shot me. Her aim is piss poor, thank heaven, or else I might have died. With enough rest, I should be ok soon.” Vallok smirked at Garrus and stood up straight.

“What did you do!?” Garrus growled, charging him. He punched Vallok in the jaw before shoving him into the wall, slamming him hard. “I’ll kill you!” He pulled out his assault rifle and pressed it to his temple, hard.

“Garrus no! Stop!” Willow yelled, “Don’t kill him!”

Garrus’s angry face fell and he turned his head halfway to her. “How can you say that?” his mandibles twitched with anticipation.

She hadn’t expected a chance to talk; Garrus was always one to act before thinking. She scrambled for her words, rambling, “I came because I heard him talking to someone over the intercom and when I got here he expected me and I tried to confront him and then, well, then we fought and I shot him and then you showed up, please Garrus, don’t kill him! You don’t need it on your conscience, please!” Her voice turned to sobs as tears flowed down her face, “Please.”

Garrus dropped Vallok and stared him down for a long moment. “Get out.”

“But this is my apartment?” he commented.

“I didn’t mean out of the apartment. I meant Omega. If I ever see your face again I will not be so lenient.”

Vallok stared back at him for a moment before turning and leaving the apartment, “I’m sure I’ll see you again… Garrus.” the door shut behind him.

Garrus turned and looked at Willow, slowly taking in what was before him.

Her hair was a mess, falling onto her face. Her makeup smeared down her cheeks, she had cried more than just since he’d gotten here. Her skin was almost completely a dark blue colour, and dark red where he assumed were large gashes that were still bleeding all over the white Omega gown she had on.

“That’s it. You fought?” he asked, taking slow steps towards her.

“Yes,” she answered determined.

“You look liked you almost died.”

“I feel like I did, but so did he. I held my own.”

“I could hardly say that, look at you. You’re one big bruise. Your dress is covered in blood and ripped to shreds.” Garrus took a deep breath to calm himself before he sat on the edge of the bed next to her. “How did you survive?”

“I had two guns. One obvious, the other hidden; he didn’t expect the second one.” She smiled a small smile, obviously a little proud of herself.

He had to admit, that was good planning of her, “Good job.” It was all he was able to say. He stared at her a moment before pulling her into his arms. A silent sob rocked her body and he rubbed her arm, “I’ll be ok. I’m here now.”

She wrapped her arms around him and cried.


	2. Chunk II

Garrus paced outside of the Omega hospital room for what felt like days, but he knew it was only a few hours. He had tried to go in with Willow when they’d arrived, but they wouldn’t let him. Direct family only, they’d said. But when he tried to explain that she had no family, they didn’t listen and told him that they would tell him as soon as he could come in and to wait outside.

He wished that it wasn’t so quiet.

Of all the places on Omega, the hospital was silent. He didn’t know if it was because it was empty or because everyone inside was sedated or dead. Either way, he could go for some screaming right now; anything to take his mind of the recent events.

It took all of his willpower to not go after Vallok for hurting Willow. He didn’t know what had caused the argument, but he could guess. From what she’d told him, it was obvious that Vallok was selling information about him. He knew that someone was trying to figure out who he was, who he had been, but he couldn’t seem to trace it back to any particular person. The trail always went cold. But Willow found something that had actually led back to someone, Vallok, and had gone to confront him like an idiot. She was so frail, not only was she human but she was a weak human. And when she arrived they fought.

Although he had to admit she obviously had put up quite a fight. When he had arrived it hadn’t been in her rescue but more in Vallok’s. He was badly wounded but other than being one big bruise and having some cuts here and there, Willow didn’t look too bad. No gaping holes to say the least. He had been underestimating her. She obviously was able to handle herself and Garrus should have realized just how far she was willing to go to take care of him.

Garrus sat down on the bench seats in the waiting room and took a deep breath. He looked up at the clock, it had been 4 hours since they arrived and still no word. He had to think about something else, something to distract him.

And that message.

What was he supposed to do with that? What kind of person lays something that big on someone when they think they might die? If she had died, he wondered if he could have handled that; losing her and Shepard, and knowing that he’d never realized how she’d felt about him.

What about him? What did he feel about her?

He was pulled from his thoughts by a soft touch on his left shoulder. He turned to see an Asari looking at him with a sweet smile on her face and holding a clipboard. She was very attractive as far as Asari went. Her skin tone was a deep purple and her eyes were a bright shade of green with a hazel in the center, a colour combination he’d only seen before on humans. Her “father” must have been a human. On any other day he would ask, purely out of curiosity, but then on any other day it would be only to look like pure curiosity, enough to engage her before convincing her to bring him back to her room so that he could forget his troubles.

Sleeping at home had become immensely difficult. All he could think about was one of two things. Either he was thinking about Shepard and how he was guilt-stricken for not having been there to save his commanding officer, the woman who had changed his perspective on literally every detail in his life.

Or he was thinking about Willow and how for some strange reason she had decided to come with him when he returned to the Citadel. He wondered why she hadn’t decided to stay with Joker and Tali, why she chose to leave with him instead, and how glad he was that she did because she might have ended up like Shepard. Dead. His self-preservation was very much rooted in her presence and the fact that his survival would impact her.

He also thought about how lately she had begun to look different. How when she was asleep at night he had to fight the urge to touch her, to wake her up. He didn’t understand why he became so violent every time she and he were alone together; he had just decided not to let himself be alone with her anymore. It was around that time that he began bar hopping after he knew she was asleep. He would wait until he could hear her deep breathing and slip out, look for women that he could take the aggression out on instead of her. Thinking of her that way scared him. When had she stopped looking like a child to him, and had become a woman?

And now that she had sent him that message his head was spinning. Did he love her too? Did she really love him? It would make sense; explain all the doting and caretaking. All the attempts to make him happy that only made him feel guiltier. She obviously did love him, despite his ignoring her for work, or for his own problems, or for Shepard.

Shepard.

Willow had always been there for him, no matter what. Shepard was a great commander and friend, but she had never been much more. In fact, she was in a relationship with Kaidan, who, as soon as she died, had ran back to the Alliance the minute they called him. He obviously was moving on. Garrus wasn’t. He hadn’t let himself. He left C-sec, left the Citadel, left everything. He even left himself behind; the him that everyone knew. Garrus was gone; Archangel was all that was left.

But that wasn’t true to Willow. She saw more in him. He knew that now.

No, obviously this was not just any other day, and the first thing that came from his mouth was a rushed, “Is she ok?”

The Asari woman smiled at him, “She’ll be fine. Sore for a few weeks, but fine.”

Garrus let out a sigh of relief. “I’m so glad.”

“Are you her bondmate?” she asked.

“What?” Garrus was taken aback for a moment before he could respond, “N-no. No, she’s not my bondmate.”

“Her caretaker then?” the woman asked, “we have some paperwork that needs to be filled out and the patient says that she doesn’t know how, that she can’t read it?”

“Oh, yes.” He reached out his hand to take the datapad. “She doesn’t know how to read common.” He explained and began to punch in what information he could without her help.

“Can’t read common?” she asked, obviously shocked. “What can she read?”

“I’m pretty sure she only knows her Earth language. She can speak common just fine though.”

“Wow. Makes you wonder if she was too poor for proper schooling or just too arrogant. She’s in room 421 if you want to go in now, you can. Just drop that off before you leave with her.”

A low growl slipped through Garrus’s beak. “What? Have you even spoken with her?”

“Yes, and she seems very upset by the recent events. If she can’t handle a little pushing around she shouldn’t have come to Omega,” the Asari began to walk away.

Garrus rose, ready to either knock some sense into her or knock her unconscious, whichever came first; but decided against it. Willow was already hurt very badly, the last thing he needed to do was worry her more by getting himself into trouble for hurting an innocent woman just because she didn’t know to keep her mouth shut. No, instead he turned the opposite direction, towards her room. He counted the numbers as he walked. When he reached the right door he gripped the handle and took a deep breath before walking inside.

The room was small, only room for one bed and two chairs. On the wall was a screen that was displaying some documentary about Kahje. His eyes shifted from the chairs to the television before they finally fell on Willow.

She looked horrible.

Any trace of skin from the neck down was covered in a white bandage; her face had a few bandages here and there but was mostly uncovered. The hard thing for him to look at was the neck brace, the leg cast from her knee down and the few stitches above her right eye. They made her look battle worn and he didn’t like that.

The noise took a moment for Willow to process before she turned to look who it was, “Garrus!” she shouted, her face lighting up.

She shouldn’t be that happy to see him, he was the reason she was hurt. Instead of responding he said, “How could I have ever thought different?”

“What?” she asked, confused.

“Nothing. How are you feeling, Jellyfish?” he asked.

Willow giggled. “Good,” she answered.

Lies. She was not good. She was broken. Her casual response made him angry, but he wasn’t about to get upset with her now, not while she was like this.

“I’m glad,” he said instead. “So you want me to help you with the paperwork?”

“Oh!” She looked down at the datapad, “Yes please. I was a little flustered before when the nurse was in here with me, she was all amazed that I couldn’t read it. I love Common, it’s so beautiful, I just don’t understand it. It looks like some kind of extraterrestrial language left for us.” A grin spread across her face, getting into an idea like this always made her so happy.

“Well, technically it is an extraterrestrial language.” He smirked at her.

“Oh, yea I guess you’re right.” Willow blushed and looked down.

“That nurse, she wasn’t mean to you was she?” he asked, a concerned look on his face.

Willow was silent for a moment, confused. “The nurse? No, just,” she paused for a moment, “off put by me I guess. It’s fine, I can’t help what I don’t know. I’m not from here.”

“Yea,” Garrus replied, “Don’t take anything she said to heart. Some Asari are just much bolder in their maiden years.”

“OH! Garrus!?” she turned to him quickly, “Would you teach me to read common!?” she asked.

Garrus stared at her a moment before he let a grin grow on his face. “I can try, but I won’t make any promises.” Garrus sat down on the bed next to her, letting himself get comfortable, “There’s a reason I'm a soldier and not a teacher.” He took the datapad from her hands and looked down at it.

“I think you’ll be a great teacher.” Willow smiled and leaned her head on his shoulder.

. . .

“Draw it again!” Willow yelled.

“Ok, ok, watch. See, the stroke order is important.” Garrus let the stylus glide gracefully over the datapad, tracing out the character he was trying to write. When he was almost finished he let his gaze shift up to Willow’s face. She was staring at his hand, watching it move with great intensity. “I think you keep having me write the characters over and over just because you like watching how I hold the pen.”

Willow’s eyes widened and a blush fell over her face, “What!?” she gasped out, “N-no! I am actually really interested in the stroke order!” she leaned over, letting her head fall to hide her face as Garrus laughed at her sudden embarrassment.

Hearing Garrus’s laugh made her calm down bit. “It reminds me of a certain earth language I was always very interested in,” she said, taking the stylus and datapad from Garrus. “It has a character based alphabet too; and a specific stroke order.” Willow took the datapad from Garrus and started to write, he watched as she drew out four characters on the pad. When she finished she smiled and handed it back placing her hands in her lap.

“So?” Garrus said.

“So, what?” she asked.

“You gonna tell me what it says or am I just going to live the rest of my life in wonder?”

Willow smiled, “It’s your name.” She pointed at the characters and sounded it out, “Ga, a, ri, su.”

“Your handwriting is better in this language than in your normal one,” Garrus pointed out.

“Yea, I know.” Willow sighed, “I don’t have good English handwriting, so I made a promise to myself that any other language I learned I was going to have perfect handwriting. Which is why I want to get the stroke order down perfectly.”

“Alright then, write them in order. I’ll correct you when you mess up.”

For a time, Willow wrote without trouble, but stopped after a few characters, “Wait, so the one with the squiggly and then the triangle is ‘mir’ and the one with the triangle on top of the squiggly is ‘kar’?” Willow said, her voice rose at the end of the statement, making it into a question.

“Close,” Garrus pointed at a chart he’d drawn on a datapad, “That one is ‘mir’, yes, but this one is ‘kita’.”

Willow let out an exasperated sigh and threw herself back on the couch. “I’m never going to get this!” she yelled, her eyes scrunched up and her hands balled into fists.

Garrus chuckled and leaned back next to her. “You’ll get it eventually.” He smiled and watched her, his eyes not leaving her face. It didn’t feel like long to Garrus but soon enough Willow’s breathing had shifted and he could hear it regulate, her heartbeat fluttering at a regular pace. He looked down at her hands to see that they were limp. She had fallen asleep.

It made sense. The day had been a long one; full of adventure, horror, action, and stress. Of course she would be tired. Garrus smiled and slid his arms softly underneath Willow’s neck brace and knees and carried her to the bedroom. He kicked the door open and laid her down on top of the comforter on the far end of the bed. It was a king size bed and so he could lay her on one side and move the blanket on the other, making it where he could move her to under the covers while disturbing her as little as possible.

Garrus crawled onto the bed to pull the blanket as close to her as he could. The plan seemed flawless until he felt a tiny set of arms wrap around his, pulling him down onto the bed and close to him.

“Garrus?” a very tiny, very tired voice escaped Willow’s lips, “Why does the sun always say the people don’t understand, because I like it when it turns into a crane.”

Garrus had been startled at first but now he was just amused. “Willow, you’re asleep. Just let go and lay down.”

“No, I’m not,” she said, never opening her eyes.

“Why are you so difficult?”

“Because you’re funny when you’re frustrated.”

“Well, it can get annoying at times, Jellyfish.”

“Sorry,” she said, sleep dripping from her voice.

“I’m sure you are.” He sighed. “Like today; running off on your own like that. What were you thinking?” Garrus asked in passing.

“I wanted to help you. I'm so useless to you. I’m a burden,” She answered, her eyes still shut.

“But you’re not. You’re very important to me. What would make you think otherwise?”

“Because you love Shepard.” 

This took Garrus aback. He had realized that her sleep had made her brutally honest, and had been taking advantage of it, but now was starting to regret it, but instead of taking his own advice and stopping he continued on.

“What makes you say that?”

“How could you not, she’s tall and strong and beautiful and amazing. I’m none of those things. It doesn’t matter if I made her who she is, she’s still better than me.” she smacked her lips.

Garrus paused a moment before asking, “Made her who she is? What do you mean?”

“Because this is a game. I’m Shepard. That’s why our names are the same. Everything here is fake, made up, all just a big part of the video game called Mass Effect, and I made Shepard. Why do you think there could be two people who look so similar without being related? Silly Garrus.”

Garrus stared at her a moment and she continued on. “I know everything that’s going to happen and has happened. That’s why Shepard kept me on the ship. I’m a sort of oracle, although it doesn’t seem to be helping very much. She told me not to tell you, something about how you wouldn’t take the idea well.”

“Willow,” Garrus cut her off, “You’re sleep talking and it’s making less sense than when you started. Let go of my arm and go to sleep. We can continue your lessons tomorrow when you wake up.”

“But I like hugging you, my snuggle-bunny. Come’ere.” She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him closer and he almost fell on top of her; catching himself over her on his hands and knees.

Garrus took a quick intake of breath through his gritted teeth and gripped the bed sheets. This was not a position he wanted to be in. It had taken all of his control in the past few months to keep his thoughts at bay and it was almost impossible to do so now. Every thought flooded his mind. Every want, every desire. His body reacted on its own. Garrus wrapped one arm around the small of Willow’s back, pulling her chest onto his. He buried his face in her hair and her hips bucked against his in response.

She gasped out and gripped at his shirt tightly. “It’s ok, don’t worry, it doesn’t hurt. I’ve been with your kind before,” she said to calm him.

As if that would have stopped him. He was a Turian. Turian sex is very violent and passionate. He was used to that kind thing. The thought didn’t even cross his mind, but it should have, he thought nothing could stop him now, this deep in his fantasy; that is, until Willow spoke again.

“You can pretend I’m Shepard.”

That’s when his consciousness flooded back to him. She was in civilian clothes now, but under those clothes were bandages. He was hurting her.

“Pretend,” he scoffed, letting her go and falling next to her on the bed and throwing an arm over his eyes. “I would never pretend that you were her. That’s,” he paused, “do you think I’d do that to you? Do you really think that lowly of yourself?” Garrus took a deep breath. “If I was going to do anything with you it would be because I wanted to be with you, not because you look like or act like Shepard. And what do you mean you’ve-” he looked over at her to find that she was out cold.

Garrus let out an exasperated sigh and looked back at the ceiling, closing his eyes. “So difficult.” He let himself drift off to sleep as well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I might add more to this if anyone wants. I had other ideas to add, Them getting back on the Normandy, Garrus remembering what Vallok had said about his taste in women and starting to wonder what Willow is hiding under the neck brace, things like that.
> 
> If anyone IS interested, just leave a comment. Maybe I'll add more.


End file.
